Amla in Honey / How to Preserve Gooseberry(Amla) in Honey

This was one of the most requested recipe in this blog after i posted Amla Murabba recipe. The reason I was stayed away from this is, it is quite a easy recipe and it just involves soaking the amla in honey and nothing more complicated than that. But yesterday when i went through my list of do things, this recipe stood a little high. And luckily i had few amla and a bottle of honey on hand, so immediately i gave it a shot.

This is such a healthy recipe, you should definitely try it. Make a big batch of it and give to your kiddos and family daily. It will make such a huge difference.I had saffron on hand so i added few here, but it is entirely optional. And the honey which i added is not your store bought stuff, it is pure mountain honey which was given to my mother by her friend. So you wont find it too dark in colour. You can use regular honey in this recipe.

Wash and pat dry the gooseberries. Now cut them into small wedges and discard the seeds.

Take a clean and air tight jar, put few pieces of gooseberry in the bottom of the jar. Add some saffron strands on top and cover that with honey.

Now put few more pieces of gooseberry and add some more saffron strands, Cover the entire thing with honey, dont fill to much, since it will expand.

You can cover this with a cheese cloth and keep it under sunlight.

Clamp a lid and store it for 10 to 15 days so it gets soaked and for better taste.Notes:

1)Always use a clean, dry jar and spoons while handling this.
2)After few hours the honey will become watery, This is the water from the gooseberry leaching out. Not to worry about it.
3)Leave it to soak atleast for 5 to 8 days before consuming so it gets time to soak and become soft.
4)You can add cardamom powder or any spices that you like.
5)Daily have a piece of gooseberry along with a spoonful of honey. 6)Once all the gooseberry gets over, you can add somemore cut up gooseberries in the same pot and pour some more honey and let the process get going.

Pictorial:

Soak amla in water for 30 mins.

Remove them from water and dry them

Dry them using a paper towel

All dried

Cut them into wedges, and deseed them

You will need these

Lovely fresh mountain honey gifted from my mom’s friend

Take a clean jar

Add few amla pieces in the bottom

Sprinkle half of the saffron

Cover it with honey

Like this

Add few more amla pieces

Sprinkle saffron

Cover again with honey

Cover till top..Now you can cover this with cheeseclothand keep it under sunlight for 2 days. if you want to store
this for a long time..(I RECOMMEND THIS)

I tried this recipe after 6th day of soaking, when I opened the bottle white layer was seen on top. I keep the bottle outside in kitchen. Can you please tell me is this expected or I did something wrong

@Anonymous Yes the amlas are put raw in honey, so they wont get soft, they will shrunk and release the juices. You dont need to keep it in the sun. The honey just preserves the amla. You have to have the amla along with the little citrus juice. It is so healthy

@AnonymousYour recipe is very easy. Thanks for posting.I tried making honey amla but after 5 days white foam layer was seen on top and fermented smell is coming. I used dry bottle only. Can you guide me about this.

I think Aarthi missed the second part of the process making the goosbery soft once its shrunk. For this after 20 days the shrunk gooseberys must be taken out n put in another vessel with another 250gm honey. This should be kept for 3- 4 months. Then u will get shop like soft succulent gooseberys filled with honey.

And the initial honey n water(oozed from goosebery) mixture cud be used as wine too

I tried to follow recipe and kept at room temperature, which is around 80 F. It started to ferment after 2 days. I have now moved to the frig. I used fresh alma that had been cut into pieces to remove the seed. Most of the moisture was from the fruit. I did also use saffron. Will this still be safe to eat?